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Grant Analysis

Purpose & Target

Grant Purpose and Target

Single, clear statement of grant's core objective: This grant aims to accelerate the adoption and improve the efficiency of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) chemicals, materials, and resulting products.
Explicit identification of target recipient type and size: The target recipients are legal entities, including companies (with a specific encouragement for SMEs), research organizations, universities, and public bodies, forming a consortium.
SECTOR-SPECIFIC: This grant is SECTOR-SPECIFIC, focusing on chemicals, materials, manufacturing, and relevant industrial applications.
Geographic scope and any location requirements: The geographic scope covers EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries. International collaboration is encouraged.
Key filtering criteria for initial grant screening: Focus on developing and implementing advanced LCA tools/methods for SSbD materials and chemicals, participation as part of a consortium, and establishment in eligible countries.
Grant frequency and program context: This is part of the recurring Horizon Europe Framework Programme, specifically within the 2025 Work Programme for Industry, Digital, and Space (Cluster 4).

Financial Structure

Funding type: This grant uses a lump sum contribution mechanism, simplifying financial management by removing the need for actual cost reporting.
Minimum funding per grant: EUR 4,000,000.
Maximum funding per grant: EUR 5,000,000.
Total budget allocated for this specific topic: EUR 15,000,000, with an expectation of funding 3 grants.
Currency: All financial amounts are in EUR.
Funding rate: For Research and Innovation Actions (RIA), the funding rate is 100.0%. This rate is already embedded within the calculated lump sum amount.
Eligible costs (covered by the lump sum): The lump sum is designed to cover typical eligible costs including personnel costs (employees, natural persons under direct contract, seconded persons, SME owners), subcontracting costs, and purchase costs (travel, equipment, other goods/works/services). It can also cover other categories like financial support to third parties, internally invoiced goods and services, and research infrastructure access costs.
Ineligible costs: Any costs that would typically be ineligible under Horizon Europe rules should not be included in the lump sum calculation.
Indirect costs: A 25% flat rate for indirect costs is applied to the direct costs (excluding subcontracting, financial support to third parties, and any unit costs/lump sums already incorporating indirect costs), and this is factored into the lump sum.
Payment schedule: Payments are released upon the proper implementation of corresponding work packages. A pre-financing payment is normally provided at the start of the project (typically 60% of the average EU funding per reporting period). Interim and final payments follow based on periodic reports.
Financial reporting: Greatly simplified due to the lump sum model; actual cost reporting is not required. Financial checks primarily focus on the technical completion of work packages rather than detailed cost documentation.
Mutual insurance mechanism: Between 5% and 8% of the maximum grant amount will be deducted from the pre-financing and contributed to a mutual insurance mechanism.

Eligibility Requirements

Organization Type & Legal Status

Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, is eligible to participate.
Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register to obtain a Participant Identification Code (PIC).
Entities without legal personality may participate if their representatives can undertake legal obligations and offer guarantees equivalent to legal persons.
EU bodies and International European research organisations are eligible to participate.

Consortium Composition

Projects must be submitted by a consortium.
The consortium must include, as beneficiaries, at least three legal entities independent from each other.
These three entities must each be established in a different country.
At least one independent legal entity must be established in an EU Member State.
At least two other independent legal entities must each be established in different EU Member States or Associated Countries.
Affiliated entities do not count towards the minimum consortium eligibility criteria.

Geographic Eligibility for Funding

Beneficiaries must be established in one of the following countries to be eligible for funding:
- EU Member States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
- Horizon Europe Associated Countries: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo (under UNSCR 1244/1999), Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom.
- Specific low- and middle-income countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Comoros, Congo (Democratic Republic), Congo (Republic), Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt (Arab Republic), El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic), Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Korea (Democratic People's Republic), Kyrgyz Republic, Lao (People’s Democratic Republic), Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Micronesia (Federated States), Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Pakistan, Palau, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, Samoa, São Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sudan, Suriname, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic), Vietnam, Yemen Republic, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Legal entities established in China are not eligible to participate in Innovation Actions (IA). This specific grant is a Research and Innovation Action (RIA), therefore this exclusion does not apply.
Legal entities established in Russia, Belarus, or non-government controlled territories of Ukraine are not eligible to participate in any capacity.
Legal entities established outside Russia but whose proprietary rights are directly or indirectly owned for more than 50% by a Russian legal person, entity, or body are not eligible.
Entities subject to EU restrictive measures are not eligible.

Operational & Financial Capacity

Applicants must have stable and sufficient resources to successfully implement the projects and contribute their share.
Operational capacity will be assessed based on the competence, experience, and resources (human, technical, other) of applicants and their project teams.
Financial capacity will be checked for the coordinator if the requested grant amount is equal to or greater than EUR 500,000, unless they are public bodies or international organizations.

Ethical & Compliance Considerations

Projects must comply with ethical principles and applicable EU, international, and national law.
An ethics self-assessment is required as part of the application.
Public bodies, research organizations, and higher education establishments from Member States and Associated Countries must have a Gender Equality Plan (GEP) to be eligible.

Application Process

Application Submission Process

Application deadline: 2025-09-23 00:00:00+0000.
Submission method: Applications must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal. Paper submissions are not accepted.
Application format:
- Part A: This section contains administrative information and call-specific questions, to be filled in directly online.
- Part B: This is the technical description of the project, which must be downloaded, completed offline, and then re-uploaded as a PDF.
- Annexes and supporting documents: These must be uploaded as PDF files or other specified formats.
- For lump sum grants, a detailed budget table must be included to justify and fix the lump sum amount.
Coordinator's responsibilities: The coordinator must confirm their mandate to act for all applicants, the accuracy and completeness of the application information, and that all participants comply with the EU funding conditions.

Evaluation Procedure & Timeline

Submission procedure: This call uses a single-stage submission process.
Evaluation timeline: Applicants can expect to receive information on the outcome of the evaluation approximately 5 months from the submission deadline.
Grant agreement signing: The indicative date for signing grant agreements is approximately 8 months from the submission deadline.
Results: All applicants will be informed of the result via an evaluation result letter. Successful proposals will be invited to the 'grant preparation' stage.
Seal of Excellence: Proposals that are positively assessed and meet quality requirements but do not receive funding due to budget limitations may be awarded a 'Seal of Excellence'.

Post-Award Requirements & Obligations (General Horizon Europe)

Grant Agreement: The grant agreement will specify the project start date and duration.
Milestones and deliverables: These will be managed through the grant management system on the Portal and are reflected in Annex 1 of the grant agreement.
Reporting: Beneficiaries are required to submit periodic reports for interim payments and a final report for the final grant calculation.
Liability: Each beneficiary is individually financially responsible for their own debt and that of their affiliated entities.
Exploitation obligations: If requested by the granting authority in a public emergency, beneficiaries must grant non-exclusive licenses to their results under fair and reasonable conditions for a limited period.
Information obligation: Beneficiaries must inform the granting authority if project results could contribute to European or international standards (up to 4 years after the project ends).
Open science practices: Beneficiaries must provide access to data for scientific publication validation and, in public emergencies, immediately deposit and provide open access to research output.

Application Assistance & Support

The Funding & Tenders Portal provides extensive resources, including:
- Online Manual and FAQ pages.
- Research Enquiry Service for general inquiries.
- National Contact Points (NCPs) for country-specific guidance.
- Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) for advice to businesses, especially SMEs.
- IT Helpdesk for technical submission issues.
- European IPR Helpdesk for intellectual property concerns.
- CEN-CENELEC and ETSI Research Helpdesks for standardisation advice.
- The European Charter for Researchers and Code of Conduct for researcher-related principles.
- Partner Search tools to find consortium members.

Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria Overview

Proposals will be evaluated and ranked against three main award criteria: Excellence, Impact, and Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation.
Each criterion will be scored out of 5, with an individual threshold of 3.
The overall threshold, applying to the sum of the three individual scores, will be 10.
Proposals that pass both individual and overall thresholds will be considered for funding.
For proposals with the same score, priority rules will apply, considering aspects like addressing uncovered call aspects, 'Excellence' and 'Impact' scores, gender balance among researchers, and geographical diversity.

Excellence

Clarity and pertinence of the project's objectives, and the extent to which the proposed work is ambitious and goes beyond the state of the art.
Soundness of the proposed methodology, including underlying concepts, models, assumptions, and inter-disciplinary approaches.
Appropriate consideration of the gender dimension in research and innovation content.
Quality of open science practices, including sharing and management of research outputs and engagement of citizens, civil society, and end-users where appropriate.

Impact

Credibility of the pathways to achieve the expected outcomes and impacts specified in the work programme, and the likely scale and significance of the contributions from the project.
Expected outcomes include:
- Support for the implementation of various EU strategies (e.g., Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), EU Ecolabel, Green Claims Directive, One-Substance-One-Assessment, Batteries Regulation, Critical Raw Materials Act, Net Zero Industry Act) with scientific evidence on sustainability.
- Significant reduction in the cost to apply LCA at company level, especially for SMEs.
- Enabling efficient and simplified LCA application at early design stages to facilitate decision-making.
- Provision of advanced, reliable, and predictive life cycle models and impact assessment methods that measure planetary boundaries.
- Filling gaps in LCA tools, methods, and data for chemicals, materials, and products, building on Environmental Footprint (EF) methods.
- Enabling data-driven decisions and actions for a greener and more sustainable future, respecting planetary boundaries.
- Development of tools in compliance with the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework.
- Ensuring developed tools, methods, and datasets are cost-effective and user-friendly to increase industry uptake.
- Seamless integration of new LCA approaches with existing safety assessment tools for holistic SSbD assessment.
- Engagement with stakeholders, particularly SMEs, to promote harmonised use.
- Performing training and knowledge transfer activities to promote LCA and SSbD knowledge.
- Contribution to yearly policy briefs and technical discussions (e.g., under ESPR or with EF Technical Advisory Board).
- Leveraging Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) researchers for models related to socio-economic factors in LCA.
- Evaluation of the economic and social dimension of sustainability at product level.
Suitability and quality of measures to maximise expected outcomes and impacts, as set out in the dissemination and exploitation plan, including communication activities.

Quality and Efficiency of the Implementation

Quality and effectiveness of the work plan, including assessment of risks.
Appropriateness of the effort assigned to work packages and overall resources.
Capacity and role of each participant, and the extent to which the consortium as a whole brings together the necessary expertise.

Compliance & Special Requirements

Regulatory & Legal Compliance

Projects must strictly adhere to ethical principles and comply with all applicable EU, international, and national laws.
The scope of the project must focus exclusively on civil applications and explicitly exclude:
- Human cloning for reproductive purposes.
- Heritable modification of the human genetic heritage (with an exception for cancer treatment of gonads).
- Creation of human embryos solely for research or stem cell procurement.
Proposals must comply with broader EU policy interests and priorities, including environmental, social, security, and industrial policies.
Projects are expected to support key EU strategies and regulations, such as:
- The proposed Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR).
- The EU Ecolabel.
- The Green Claims Directive proposal.
- The One-Substance-One-Assessment package.
- The Batteries Regulation.
- The Critical Raw Materials Act.
- The Net Zero Industry Act.

Ethical & Security Standards

An ethics self-assessment is mandatory, and projects may undergo an ethics review for funding authorization.
Projects involving EU classified or sensitive information will undergo a security appraisal and may be subject to specific security rules, including requirements for Facility Security Clearances (FSC).

Data & Intellectual Property

Data protection and privacy must comply with Regulation 2018/1725 and the Funding & Tenders Portal privacy statement.
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR): Generally, the party generating the IPR will retain ownership. However, in specific cases, such as public emergencies, beneficiaries may be required to grant non-exclusive licenses on fair and reasonable conditions for exploitation.

Cross-Cutting Themes

Gender Equality: Proposals must demonstrate measures to promote equal opportunities and gender balance. Public bodies, research organizations, and higher education establishments must have a Gender Equality Plan (GEP).
Open Science: Emphasis is placed on the quality of open science practices, including sharing and management of research outputs and providing open access, especially in the context of public emergencies.
Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH): The integration of SSH researchers is specifically highlighted for refining models related to socio-economic factors within LCA, such as child labour and employment conditions.
Digital Technologies: The use of advanced digital technologies, including modelling, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, is expected for filling data and assessment gaps and estimating LCA uncertainty.

Strategic Alignment & Collaboration

Projects should contribute to the Strategic Research and Innovation Plan for chemicals and materials.
International collaboration is encouraged to broaden the impact and scope of the research.
Synergies with existing projects and relevant European, national, or regional initiatives, funding programmes, and platforms are expected.
Specific collaborations are encouraged with the Partnership on Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC), the IRISS project, and building upon results from the ORIENTING project.
Where relevant, proposers are encouraged to leverage and connect with European research infrastructures and services.

Unique Aspects & Challenges

Lump Sum Funding: This grant operates on a lump sum basis, meaning financial reporting is simplified, focusing on the completion of work packages rather than detailed cost accounting. However, a comprehensive upfront budget estimation is crucial.
Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) Focus: The core objective is deeply rooted in the SSbD framework, requiring a holistic approach to chemical and material design from early innovation phases.
Translational Research: The grant expects the development of user-friendly and cost-effective LCA tools that can be readily adopted by industry, particularly SMEs, and inform policy decisions.
Policy Impact: A direct expectation is the contribution to policy briefs and technical discussions, translating research into actionable policy insights.

Grant Details